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PortalZ is a fan-made series of test chambers for Portal 1. It is completely free and works in any copy of Portal on Windows or Mac.

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Welcome to the homepage of PortalZ, a map pack for Portal 1 featuring 20 test chambers.

Some chambers have been inspired by great map packs/mods including Portal: The Flash Version Mappack (best map pack ever) and Portal: Prelude (best mod ever). Others build off of techniques learned in Portal. And others are completely original. Some are completely unexpected ones (including "Peggle" and "Labyrinth"). Regardless, enter PortalZ prepared to think with portals.

You can download the demo of PortalZ from the Downloads page (as separate files) or from one of the download locations below (as one compressed file):

To give you a taste of what will be in the final version of PortalZ, I have uploaded several of the chambers that were originally in PortalZ: The First Slice. You can download them from the preview chambers page. As you can see, the chambers are much less buggy, look a lot better, and are overall more fun to play. Feel free to e-mail me with any comments. I will try to get more PortalZ chambers finished as soon as possible [insert lame excuse about my job here]. The bright side is dedicating more time to designing and playtesting each chamber means they will be even more fun to play when they are finally finished.

Big Updates SoonPosted 2011-06-04

To quote GLaDOS, "It's been a long time." I got pulled away from PortalZ by school, Google Wave, HTML5, inProd, and a variety of other things, which is why updates on this site sort of died. I did have some time to work on PortalZ over the past year and a half, but the map pack progressed slowly because of my other distractions. In March, the impending release of Portal 2 reminded me that I had not finished PortalZ, let alone Portal: Rat Man, so I went back to work. Now I am happy to report that more PortalZ are close to completion. I am aiming to release them by the end of this month, but they will definitely be out by the end of July at the latest.

Some comments about Portal 2: Portal 2 does not really affect PortalZ in any way. Most of the chambers were pretty much planned out already and just needed to be built. PortalZ will still be a map pack for Portal 1 since it incorporates almost no testing elements from Portal 2 (with the exception of a thermal discouragement beam area based on rumors from early 2010). On the other hand, because it is much further from completion, Portal: Rat Man will be moved to the Portal 2 engine. Yes, this means it will be even longer until it is released, but it had a long way to go anyway. On the bright side, this means I will be able to add in use of new elements like gels as well as all the beautiful new models and textures Valve created for the sequel.

So yeah, that is the current state of things. When it is finally finished, I hope you find PortalZ to be worth the wait. Happy testing!

I am back Posted 2009-10-28

I took a the summer off PortalZ But now I am back! Actually I have been working on new test chambers (and fixing chambers that had problems in the demo) for over a month. In a minute I will upload my Peggle-based level. Note that it is not done yet and has several bugs (ex: the pegs on the left side break too soon), but you can try it out anyway.

Release Day! Posted 2009-06-20

Today is the release day. I have gotten no more bug reports since the 18th, so I think the demo is ready for release (except chamber 05 is still really hard, but that may change before the release of the full version). Regardless, please download from the Downloads page or one of the links at the top of the page.

Still updating Posted 2009-06-18

Files updates again on this site, but not on other sites. The end on chamber 10 is better now (but not perfect). Other minor bugs have also been fixed.

Almost there! Posted 06-16-09, edited 06-07-09

If you have been watching the updates on the downloads page, you will probably have noticed the maps being updated quite a lot recently. I am almost ready to release PortalZ: The First Slice. I just need to fix test chamber 05 (and any other glitches I hear about between now and the release date (06-20-09 at the latest)) and I will be done! Since the real chamber 08 is still too buggy (and not completely finished), the demo chamber 08 will be part of the final chamber 17 (17 because the WCC is awesome and I like that chamber). You can download the beta of the final demo at one of the sites below (it is too big for Google Sites).

EDIT: Map pack has been updated as of 06-17-09 at 17:05. If you downloaded before then, I recommend you download the newer, less glitchy version from one of the updated links below.

ANOTHER EDIT: As of 22:30 on 06-17-09, all maps on the Downloads page have been replaced with the final beta (oxymoronic, I know) maps. Note that these are called "z_demo_chamber_#" instead of "z_chamber_#", so you must make that change if you launch the maps from the console. On the other hand, you can just download the updated BNS file and select "PortalZ: The First Slice" from your bonus maps list.

Some more updatesPosted 06-09-09

I have made some slight modifications to some of the current test chambers. In addition, I have updated the "materials" folder with a couple new custom textures for PortalZ. Save it to the location specified on the Downloads page. Accept all overwrites as all textures are either the same or have been improved. Hopefully I will be able to release PortalZ: The First Slice on or before June 20th, 2009. Sorry for the delay; I recently updated my operating system (to Windows 7 RC--if you run Vista, upgrade now) and had to reinstall my programs, including Steam.

Test chamber 03 addedPosted 04-26-09

I have uploaded test chamber 03. You can download it from the Downloads page. I have also added a folder with signage textures from the Portal: TFV Mappack (all credit for them goes to WCS) because some players may not have that mappack. Note that this is just some signage, not the entire mappack!

PortalZ: The First Slice is almost ready for release! Posted 04-24-09

OnceIcompletesomesmallmodificationsandfinishdebuggingchambers03,05,07, and 08, I will release PortalZ: The First Slice (a map pack with Z_chambers 1-10). This should be released within the next month! Chambers 11-20 are not all done and will take a bit longer to complete. Check back for more information.

Also, I have updated the maps on the Downloads page. Note that chamber 11 is now chamber 09. Test chamber 04 has been added.

Credits:

Map making and most map ideas: Zachary Yaro

Some signage textures and the design of the blue walls and red walls: Hen Mazolski (We Create Stuff, Portal: The Flash Version Mappack)